After witnessing what has to be one of the best seasons ever on the North Shore unfold, with some of the biggest swells in living memory and a run of amazing surf competitions it is now the turn of the Bodyboarders, with the Mike Stewart Pipeline Invitational just hours away from crashing the party at Banzai. The Pipe event is due to get underway from Saturday 27th of February and the official call will be made at 6.30am Hawaiian time (16.30 GMT). The current Surfline forecast is predicting a 3.1m – 4.6m swell, but unfortunately for the millions of fans around the world the event will not be available to watch live.

Disappointingly, due to a lack of external support and funding there is no live webcast and the only way to keep in touch with events at Pipeline is via the Science Bodyboard Twitter account or to follow the live heat scores unfolding at the Science Bodyboard website. Fans will be able to catch up with the Mike Stewart Pipeline Invitational retrospectively, courtesy of Epicentre.tv who will be sharing the event on their website from March 14th 2016.

Other news reaching us today, is that the 2 times World Champion Andre Botha has been forced to withdraw from the competition after sustaining a back injury surfing Waimea shorebreak earlier this week. Christian “Rissole” Riguccini, who happens to be in Hawaii for the premier of the Holding On, Skid Kids Documentary, will replace the injured South African.

We would love to hear who you think has the minerals to win the opening event of the 2016 World Tour and what are your thoughts on the lack of a live feed and having to watch the Pipeline Invitational in 2 weeks time on catch up?